MAY 14 - JUNE 15, 2009

Ruth Marten

HAIR ON FIRE

MAY 14 - JUNE 15, 2009

Ruth Marten

HAIR ON FIRE

Curated by Mark Sloan, “Hair on Fire” represents six contemporary artists who explore the diverse history of human hair through their art—from its significance in mythology, cultural anthropology, fashion, and folklore, to its rich metaphorical possibilities. Each artist creates works that are either made of, incorporate, or relate to the hirsute. Artists featured are Caryl Burtner, Sonya Clark, Talia Greene, Ruth Marten, Althea Murphy-Price, and Loren Schwerd.

A graduate of the High School of Art and Design in 1967, and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston in 1971, Ruth Marten has worked as an artist, illustrator, and tattooist. She has done sketches for Ferragamo and Vogue, and created book cover art, most notably in collaboration with author Peter Mayle, author of A Year in Provence, Toujours Provence. For the past three years, Marten has been drawing on eighteenth-century engravings in such a manner that her additions appear to be there from the start. Presently she is painting giant watercolors influenced by antique furniture designs, and everything else that has ever intrigued her. These will be exhibited at the Hosfelt Gallery in San Francisco in a three-person show called Lust Garden.

Ruth Marten

HAIR ON FIRE

MAY 14 - JUNE 15, 2009

My time farming the fertile fields of hair depiction was passionate fun and an education. Everyone has a personal experience with their hair and, as a signifier of culture, class, attraction, mores and invention, there is nothing more fascinating.

Every time I thought I’d invented a particularly outlandish configuration to draw, I’d see it walking by on someone’s head. Having always loved drawing figures with special attention to the hair-dos, it was natural to expand this and exaggerate the gesture of the hair. I called these portraits the “Hurricane Series,” running through the alphabet and reflecting my interests in eighteenth-century engravings, cinema duotone posters, and Dutch still-life paintings.

After sixteen years using hair as my subject, surrogate and focus, I look with satisfaction and some amazement that art about hair has become gestalt in itself. I’d love to take some credit for this popularity, but it has too much universal appeal for that.

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